Joel Goldstein

President, Mr. Checkout Distributors

Joel is the “go-to” person when trying to place a new product into retail. He is the author of Amazon’s best selling book Start From Success, and host of RetailSummit.live . Focused on the retail sector, he specializes in developing a path to market and is able to advise where a product will be best received.
He has contributed to Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc. and regularly is used as a retail industry expert on Fox News. Being raised by a distributor, he has had a lifetime of experience getting products successfully on store shelves. Since purchasing his family business Mr. Checkout, Joel has successfully placed product on retail shelves nationwide in independent stores and with major retailers.
Since 1989, Mr. Checkout is a national group of independent distributors, full-line grocery distributors and wagon-jobbers. We represent products in over 60 major retailers throughout the country and our distributors service approximately 55,000 stores. Distributors, retailers and the media alike turn to Mr. Checkout to find the next hot new product to carry.
Joel was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Florida where he decided to stay for his undergraduate college studies. After pursuing post-graduate degrees at both Harvard and Wharton, Joel fled as fast as he could back to Florida. Now Based in Central Florida, Joel enjoys spending his nights and weekend with his wife and two kids boating, fishing or hiking.
Connect with Joel:
~ http://JoelGoldstein.com
~ http://MrCheckout.net

As we become more eco-conscious and understanding about how our day-to-day activities affect the world around us I believe this to be a trend. It will resonate throughout the grocery sector in the next five to 10 years as Millennials become parents and start grocery shopping for the families.

As the workforce becomes younger, retailer struggle with the generational gap and expectations of those employees more and more. The "mothering" of the employees now resides on the manager as that is what they have come to expect. The cultural fit is very important, however understanding the larger social and political environment is the key to retaining employees as they have shown they will quit a job quickly without a safety net if they feel their needs aren't being addressed.

Technology can be a platform for streamlining employees out of the stores, however it could also deliver employees into people's homes. I think the example with The Container Store is the perfect look into the near future where employees will be an added benefit to their customer's online shopping and guiding purchases as a good employee would have done in a store.

The issue with the advertisement is that people are imprinting their views on top of it. The media in itself is not controversial, however the conversation around it is. They did an excellent job sparking the controversy and developing the discussion as it does build discussion around their brand name.

Discounted products at Whole Foods could lead to a substantial hit to independent grocery retail industry. I've spoken to several grocers through the Independent Grocer Association this week that have growing concerns about how to stay relevant over the next 10 years as Internet ordering becomes more convenient. With in-store shopping, the experience is key. That's what Costco perfected with its sampling program and what Whole Foods is going to find will be key to bringing Prime members into the stores.

Having customers put "skin in the game" is a great way to solidify customer loyalty. If they are building enough value into the $20 for the customers it is going to be evident by the success of the program. This may be an interesting new strategy by brick-and-mortar stores to fight against direct-to-customer marketing campaigns.

Competition against your own brand is not a good strategy for CPG products, as they run the risk of upsetting their brick-and-mortar retailers. Creating a direct-to-consumer line that they can sell online under another brand is an easy way to avoid price matching issues online vs. in-store.

If you are large enough, the best programs are done internally through social campaigns or by a creative director employing something guerrilla marketing-esque. These kinds of campaigns are not only reliant on the customer being incentivized to come back to the store, but build on the social construct to make them "feel good" checking in to the gym, or share how they "feel special" getting upgraded to first class on a trip.

Though I believe it to still be a testing platform, the idea that the the human element can shift from money taker to product helper could be the concept that becomes reality. As the shopping demographic for retail changes, so do its needs and a well-informed personal shopper could be a competitive advantage for a brick-and-mortar store when a customer is making buying decisions.

Though Walmart came to the party a little late, they have proven to be a quick study. Their unique strategy to attract the younger demographic through brands they are familiar with seems shortsighted as trends fade fast with the Instagram generation. However, through acquiring these brands, over time they will be able to own a significant portion of each niche retail space if managed properly.

Home Depot, Lowes and other DIY retailers have benefitted from such programs. This kind of push out to the community, pull people into the store tactic has been working for decades with independent toy retailers and it's a great way to increase your store's top of mind appeal.

Luckily for Cannon, they are in a market where the users are actively driven to further their hobby and have content that they would like to share. Unfortunately for CPG products and other consumer goods, it will be a challenge and ultimately on the business to encourage the UGC to be submitted.
An area that does very well with this is cosmetics, with users sending in selfies with hashtags that will get their brand to participate in the online conversation. Sephora has done well with their Beauty Insider Community becoming a frequent contributor on their Instagram.

Not just a good PR move, this will allow the pharmacies to broaden their retail footprint into transportation deserts serving as a true part of the community. Outside-of-the-box thinking like this will be the key to building customer loyalty where price-shopping isn't going to be the deciding factor.

Behind the acquisition is not a technology driver but a network. The network of users that Ring has built by having their apps and notifications on phones around the world is the true value. With Amazon's push to bring AI to people's homes, what's better than eyes and ears that are already in millions of homes?